FADP Highlight – Print Presentation

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Print presentation is the final aspect of fine art printing. Mounting, mats, framing, portfolios, bodies of work, environment, light. All of these things affect the way a work of art is perceived by viewers. They might seem like incidental after thoughts but they’re actually integral components of making artistic statement – and it often provides necessary protection ensuring a work of art endures. The most beautiful prints in the world will become more beautiful with appropriate presentation – or fade away without it.
Check out my series of articles on print presentation in Photoshop User and on my website.
Learn more at Brooks here.
Be the first to hear about the next FADP workshop.
Stay tuned to Insights for the upcoming release of our Fine Art Workflow DVD.
Check out Mac Holbert’s website.
Find out more in my Fine Art Digital Printing Workshops.

FADP Highlight – Special Guest – Chris Orwig

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Chris Orwig shared many insights in an inspiring lecture during our FADP workshop at Brooks. Chris collects great stories from photographers and shares them in his new book Visual Poetry.
In one story, a man has written a novel and decides it’s no good so he throws it out. As she’s taking out the trash, his wife discovers the manuscript and reads it. She goes to him and says he needs to finish it – it’s good. He does. It becomes a best seller.
Chris thinks we all need ‘trash can buddies’. I agree.
Find out more about Chris Orwig here.
Learn more at Brooks here.
Be the first to hear about the next FADP workshop.
Stay tuned to Insights for the upcoming release of our Fine Art Workflow DVD.
Check out Mac Holbert’s website.
Find out more in my Fine Art Digital Printing Workshops.

FADP Highlight – Svetlanda Tepavcevic – It's Printmaking Not Just Photography

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Svetlana Tepavcevic makes abstract black and white images of waves that look like ink paintings.
We discussed the importance of scale and presentation agreeing that classic photographic small scale matted approaches reduced the impact of the images. A larger scale with a different presentation format will highlight the more painterly concerns of these images. So will appropriate materials – something matte and fibrous.
The source files aren’t super high resolution, but that’s a non-issue because the treatment of the subject supports substantial upsampling. It’s another case of how the “rules” are only useful guidelines that identify significant considerations and raise important questions but there are always exceptions. They say “Exceptions prove the rule.” And, there’s an art to knowing when to make them.

See more of Svjetlana Tepavcevic’s work here.

Learn more at Brooks here.
Be the first to hear about the next FADP workshop.
Stay tuned to Insights for the upcoming release of our Fine Art Workflow DVD.
Check out Mac Holbert’s website.
Find out more in my Fine Art Digital Printing Workshops.
Read more

FADP Highlight – A Sense of Destination

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One of the key concepts Mac Holbert and I emphasize in our digital printing workshops is developing a clear sense of destination before you start editing a file. Once you have a sense of destination what you need to do to an image becomes much clearer. Without a sense of destination you may end up wandering aimlessly. Your personal style may influence the route you take but you’ll know what steps you need to take to get where you want to go. First you have to know where you want to go. Your artistic intention determines objectives, outcomes, and procedures. There may be many ways to get there – different tools to choose from and ways to apply them during your workflow – but with a clear sense of destination you’ll be able to more easily make meaningful choices that fulfill your vision.
Learn more at Brooks here.
Be the first to hear about the next FADP workshop.
Stay tuned to Insights for the upcoming release of our Fine Art Workflow DVD.
Check out Mac Holbert’s website.
Find out more in my Fine Art Digital Printing Workshops.
Read More

Nocturne IV

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I’ve always been fascinated by photographs of the night sky. Telescopes are able to bring back details I could never have seen with the naked eye. Film exaggerates the colors of the stars, which are faint to the human eye. The lens often eliminates the tiny flares we see. When we draw stars, we don’t use circles, we usually use pentagrams. There’s a reason. I can understand that the twinkle and shimmer of the tapestries above would disappear in a photograph. Time is frozen in photographs. But that the photograph would be significantly different than what the human eye sees is fascinating to me. We’re taught to think that the camera records things as we see them. It does to a degree. But there are many points of divergence. It’s almost standard for us to defer to the photograph over our own experience. That’s something I’m wary of — or let’s say instead, acutely aware of …
Read more here.

Adobe's Lightroom 3 Public Beta Is Now Available.

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Adobe’s Lightroom 3 Public Beta is now available.
Download it now.
Highlights include …
1 Importing has been redesigned
2 Collections panel in the Develop Module
3 Better Noise Reduction
4 Grain feature
5 Improved vignetting controls
6 Drag and Drop Publishing to the Web
7 Watermarking
8 Export Slideshows with music
9 Custom Print Package for creating print layouts
10 Change the background color of prints
Find over 12 useful video tutorials on the new features at NAPP’s Lightroom 3 Learning center here.
Find Seth Resnick and Jamie Spritzer’s D-65 free PDF here.

Fall Foliage Workshop Highlights

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The participants in my recent Maine Fall Foliage workshop discovered many creative solutions that helped them focus on their personal vision. The inspiration and new perspectives they found are ultimately more important than the images they made; these new insights will influence all the images they’ll soon make. They found some very nice images too.
What can you do to find more inspiration for your images?
What new perspectives can you find to enrich your images?

Learn more about my field workshops here.

See more. Click ‘Read more …” Read More

Namibia – Justin Hartford – A Quiet Mind

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A Quiet Mind
by Justin A. Hartford
In May of this year I traveled with JP to Namibia to photograph the
vast deserts and endlessly untouched areas of such a remote location.
I grew. I grew as a photographer and a person during that time. To go
on a photographic journey with JP is to have a very unique experience.
We had group exercises. We had individual attention. For me, the most
important was the time I was allowed to wander on my own away from the
group. I was always supported, as was everyone, for trying new things
and doing something different. In the mornings we would all load up in
the Land Rovers and head out with coffee in hand. I had music in ear.
The music I was listening to is the basis for my body of work that
came out of that Namibian journey. Blue Octobers song A Quiet Mind.
My series, A Quiet Mind, is a selection of eighteen images. It is a
series about searching for something even though I don’t know what I’m
searching for. It is about being lost and alone. It is about having so
much going on inside my head sometimes that all I want is A Quiet
Mind. I hope you enjoy viewing these images.
Find out more about Justin Harford here.
Find out about my 2010 Namibia workshop here.
See more images … Read More